Thanks to an offhand remark to the wrong person about how sappy and overly upbeat holiday letters are, Bart will be writing the Kessler’s version this year. So strap in. Here’s the skinny.
Let’s start with the important things, sports.
The year started off with the soul-crushing defeat of the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX by (those cheating bastards) the New England Patriots after a series of miracles that had gotten the Seahawks into the game in the first place and down to the goal line on what was clearly, by the will of God, meant to be the game winning drive. All those who thwarted said will are destined to burn in Hell which gives us some consolation. Not that we’re bitter.
On the other hand, the Portland Timbers won whatever the soccer thingy is with a miraculous run of their own, not that anyone but a small band of euro-wanabees actually cares. I mean it’s soccer. They have to play two games in each playoff round just to be sure they score enough goals to figure out who wins. The 30 seconds of highlights of the final game consisted of 9 seconds of goal scoring and 21 seconds of the times teams *almost* scored. ’nuff said.
We won’t even discuss the Trailblazers who had built up a pretty decent team, made the playoffs, lost quickly in the first round as usual, then proceeded to lose 10 of their 12 players or something like that and start over. They’re actually pretty good now. For three quarters of a game anyway.
Ok, now that we’ve got that covered, here’s the other stuff.
Bart’s company, Care Innovations, continued its valiant struggle to remain a non-profit. Although it’s still in business and that’s something. Luckily, the yearly budget is a rounding error to our corporate-giant ‘parents’, GE and Intel. The equivalent of throwing a quarter in our tin cup every year on Christmas. On the plus side, while last year we were unprofitable with a few customers, this year we are unprofitable with lots of customers. So next year, if the sudden onslaught of trying to deploy all this new business doesn’t actually put us out of business, the financial situation may improve. In the meantime it pays well, and creating technology to reduce health care costs and improve outcomes beats trying to sell whatever the next generation of Intel chip is to customers who don’t care, and the people are nicer too.
Bart continues to work from home, which he enjoys, because most days he doesn’t have to shower, shave or get dressed. Ironically, working at home allows him to spend his day looking like he’s homeless. But at least he no longer has to commute as the roads here continue to clog with traffic due to the continuing migration of hipsters and designer wannabees to the Portland area and Beaverton’s response of adding a stoplight every 100 feet as a solution. Not to mention filling every available acre of land with 6 or 7 houses.
Marion continues her volunteer work at Scrap (a recycled materials store) selling junk and debris to vagrants and mental patients (or “artists” as she calls them) that they are too lazy to pick up off the side of the road themselves. But it allows her to sort things and if that’s what it takes to keep her from grabbing something sharp and taking someone out, then that’s what it takes and we should all be happy. It’s a lot cheaper than doctors.
Speaking of doctors, Bart spent a lot of time with them this year due to lower back issues which he’s had for years but worsened considerably this year. While it does provide a convenient excuse for getting out of many household chores (gardening, leaf raking, gutter cleaning, etc.) it’s now impacting the things he wants to do like sitting, standing, walking, etc. His primary doctor’s diagnosis of “yeah, it’ll do that” which has been the primary diagnosis for years was finally deemed to be ‘insufficient’ and specialists are now involved. We’re hoping for some benefit from steroid injections next week. (Daniel’s solution of ‘lose some weight and take the strain off’ was deemed unworkable.)
Marion also achieved a long time goal of adding solar power to our house. She achieved an additional goal, not sought for, of learning to beat a solar company’s operational organization into submission. What should have taken maybe a month dragged on for seven for reasons I won’t bore you with but can pretty much be summed up by ‘wet paper bag – 1, operational organization’s escaping capability – 0’. Our solar finally became operational in October (we started in March) Three days later, it started raining and pretty much hasn’t stopped. This after the sunniest summer in Oregon in 10+ years. Makes you want to burn some fossil fuel. Like the solar company’s building just as an example. It’s a small consolation to know that everyone on the ops team has been fired and new processes put in place. The next people to get solar can thank Marion for that. Bart of course is obsessed with watching the daily solar output on the stat web site. But in fairness it’s more exciting than watching his step count on the Fitbit web site. Things were looking good for a couple of weeks before the latest back incident put a stop to that. He’s hoping to get back to it after the shots since he discovered listening to history podcasts while walking actually makes him look forward to it. He’s just going to need some waterproof clothing for awhile (like 5 months).
In June, Daniel boldly decided to introduce his new girlfriend, Eve, to the family by running her past a gauntlet of all the California relatives at once. A four day extravaganza with a new relative each day, interspersed with hours in the car with your boyfriend’s parents who you just met. Fun! But I guess if you want to find out quickly if it’s ‘real’ that’s one way to do it. She did great, we had a good time, and they’re still together. So test passed. They live a few hours north in Seattle. We’re looking forward to seeing them at New Year’s.
No major trips this year but lots of little ones, mostly to visit family. But a couple of note. Marion spent a week with her quilting friends in Deer Lodge, Montana, whose major claim to fame is the Montana State Prison there. At least that’s where she *says* she’s going but I find it kind of hard to believe. Both the where and the why. But if 30 years of marriage teaches you nothing it’s don’t ask too many questions. She does come home with newly quilted items so who’s to say? But if you were looking for a scenario that pretty much guaranteed Bart would say “you go ahead without me” so you could head to a beach in Mexico, spending a week with quilters in Deer Lodge Montana would be it.
Daniel and I completed our annual baseball trip, continuing our now 10 year project to visit every ballpark. This year to Toronto, Canada. And despite spending almost as much time on the plane to get there as we did in town, it’s been a great annual tradition and we’re both looking forward to next year. Apart from spending the time with Daniel, I think it’s safe to say Marion feels the same way about seeing baseball as I feel about quilting in Montana. So maybe when we run out of ballparks, we’ll head to a beach in Mexico and tell her its baseball.
We found lots of other things to do to keep us busy as well. We had quarter-season tickets to the Blazers, which let us go to 10 games to cheer them on, which we enjoy, and to buy $12 cheeseburgers which we don’t enjoy as much but we still do it. We even made it to one of the playoff games, a first for us (and Daniel came down to go too). That was fun, despite the loss. We also subscribed to not one, but two theater companies *and* the Broadway series, which are traveling shows. Portland Center Stage, the company we’ve been subscribers to for quite awhile was consistently good. Third Rail Repertory, the new one we tried, was consistently inconsistent. Some very good shows with some “what the hell was that” mixed in. Sadly, the traveling Broadway series, which always sounds good, is consistently disappointing, and I think we’ve finally weaned ourselves from it. The cavernous barn that is the Keller Auditorium where the shows play does not help. We also attended “One Day University”, which consists of 4 professors giving their ‘best lecture’ on a variety of subjects. Really fascinating. However, they did not bestow a degree on us at the end which I think is false advertising.
Marion spends the rest of her time keeping the US post office in business with handmade cards and other paper items she sends to friends and family or out in the garden keeping things nice or kitty wrangling. Bart spends the rest of his time bitching about his back, watching TV, doing the daily New York Times crossword puzzle and keeping the electronics working. And kitty wrangling.
I think that about covers it. Our year in a nutshell. Merry Christmas to all of you to whom such sentiment is appropriate. Happy Holidays to those among you who find that offensive because you celebrate something else. And if you’re one of those people who can’t find anything at all to celebrate at this time of year, then a Bah Humbug to you and yours.